This week I am going to focus on self-publishing podcasts. If you are an indie writer and have not found self-publishing podcasts yet, I highly recommend that you give them a try. They’re great to listen to when you are running errands in the car, doing housework or going for walks, although I generally like to dream up plot ideas while I walk. While I love to keep up on industry news through the many great web resources that focus on indie publishing, the best of which in my opinion is The Passive Voice, I don’t always have the time to read everything I need to and podcasts are the perfect answer. The writers and others who are producing these podcasts are doing a fantastic job. Stay tuned because I’m going to list and talk about my top five favourites below.
I also have a cover reveal and chapter one excerpt up for A Quill Ladder, the second book in my Derivatives of Displacement series. Editing is going well, which is good because it is due in to my favourite editor, David Gatewood, on September 22nd. Look for the release of A Quill Ladder on October 31st.
Photo Credit: Mingo.nl via Compfight Creative Commons
Okay so, on to my top five favourite self-publishing podcasts in order:
1) Self-Publishing Roundtable
The Self-Publishing Roundtable is team-hosted by a myriad of successful indie writers and brings in new guest writers every week to talk about what worked for them and what didn’t. The production quality sucks and sometimes you can’t hear everyone, but the discussions are always frank and the questions probing—and even better—the writers answer the questions. The team hosted nature of the podcast creates some challenges as the hosts sometimes talk over each other, but it also results in some of the best questions of any podcast as the team members all come at the writer from different angles. The discussion is generally super practical and the team always goes for details in terms of sales numbers, costs and the writing process. The banter among the team members is also generally funny and they allow for questions from the listening audience. They get great guests and I’ve learned a ton from every show.
2) The Sell More Books Show
The Sell More Books Show is a new one and I am just starting to go through the episodes. This podcast is very professionally produced and the hosts, Bryan Cohen and Jim Kukral, are entertaining and work hard to make their show as useful as possible. Each show follows a set structure with tips of the week and top five news items. The hosts limit the banter and stay focused. If you can’t read The Passive Voice and want to stay up on industry happenings, this podcast is the one for you. It doesn’t provide the same details that the SPRT hosts extract from their guests but it is always worth a listen, especially if you have a limited amount of time.
3) The Creative Penn Podcasts
Joanna Penn’s The Creative Penn podcast has been around for a long time. She often shares tidbits of advice from her own experiences as an indie author and includes an interview with a successful writer. It is professionally produced and Joanna is easy to listen to. I like this podcast a lot, but sometimes the quality of the show is dependent on the quality of the interviewee, and since there is only one interviewer, Joanna can’t always draw information out of less forthcoming guests in the same way the tag-team approach of the SPRT can. There is also a tendency to focus more on the books and creative process of the guests, rather than the practical marketing numbers information that I am interested in. Still it is a great podcast and definitely on my download list.
4) The Rocking Self-Publishing Podcast
I love The Rocking Self-Publishing Podcast too. It is also extremely professionally produced. Like The Creative Penn, this show has a single interviewer, Simon Whistler, and a single guest and focuses in-depth on one writer’s experiences. It really is tied for third in my "listen to" list. Whistler asks good questions, is very diligent, and there have been some great episodes, most notably the one with Hugh Howey. The quality of this show in my experience is linked to the nature of the guest. Although Whistler gets in some great guests, he also gets in some that are more narrowly focused on specific genres, or non-fiction or history. So sometimes I am less interested in some of the episodes than others. But go through the episodes and pick out the ones that you think would interest you. You won't be disappointed.
5) The Self-Publishing Podcast.com
The Self-Publishing Podcast.com is team-hosted by three guys, Jonny B Truant, Sean Platt and Dave Wright. I think that the guys are funny, and have some great advice to offer, and lots of industry insight, but sometimes it takes them a long time to get to the advice. There is a lot of banter, which albeit entertaining, is not always what I am interested in. That said, I am pretty sure that they have a cult following, and if you are a writer in their genres (dark horror, sci fi etc.), this is a must listen. They are absolute originals and if you love them, you love them.
Those are my faves. Are there any other great podcasts out there? Any great episodes of these podcasts to recommend?